1. Field of the Invention
One aspect of this invention relates generally to an online method and system for advising customers on service needs, facilitating the scheduling of vehicle service appointments, and checking vehicle service status.
2. Background Art
Conventionally, scheduling a service appointment at an automobile dealership involves interacting with a dealership representative. A customer communicates a service request and availability to the dealership representative. Often, the customer communicates with the dealership representative via telephone calls, e-mail, or traditional mail.
The representative interprets the information provided by the customer and usually translates the information onto paper or enters the information into a dealer management system. Sometimes, the information is not translated or entered correctly, leading to errors in the scheduling of the service appointment or in the servicing of the customer's vehicle. As a result, the customer's confidence that their service needs will be accurately interpreted and processed in a timely manner at the dealership is relatively low.
In addition, the questions used by different representatives to identify symptoms of the vehicle problem vary greatly. Therefore, there is a lack of uniformity in the information obtained by the interaction between the customer and the representative. As a result, service needs are often improperly diagnosed, if diagnosed at all.
Moreover, conventional methods for scheduling service requests usually require that the service appointment request is made during regular operating hours of the dealership.
A system for offering online appointment scheduling, available from ADP, Inc. (ADP) is referred to as myautogarage.com iServ, otherwise referred to as myautogarage. Although the myautogarage system accommodates scheduling service appointments past regular operating hours, the system is disadvantageous because it can result in double booking appointments. Myautogarage requires set up of two separate calendars that invariably share the same open appointments. FIG. 1 represents a schematic diagram illustrating the myautogarage system.
FIG. 1 illustrates dealer management computer 12, scheduling computer 14, dealer website server 16, interconnected by a computer network. Scheduling computer 14 is administered by ADP. Dealer management computer 12 serves dealer computer 18 for use by a dealer representative in scheduling appointments requested by a customer that visits a dealer or phones the dealer representative. Dealer management computer 12 also stores appointment calendar information to and retrieves appointment calendar data from dealer management database 20. Dealer management database 20 includes first appointment calendar 22. Scheduling computer 14 stores appointment calendar information to and retrieves appointment calendar data from scheduling database 30. Scheduling database 30 includes second appointment calendar 24. Dealer website 16 serves customer computer 28 for scheduling appointments online.
A dealer interested in online appointment scheduling through myautogarage contacts ADP, which sends an appointment calendar form to the interested dealer, usually via fax machine. The dealer fills in the form with a group of open appointments. For example, the dealer can select twenty fifteen minute appointments per day for the next thirty available appointment days. Typically, the completed form is sent to ADP via fax machine and ADP updates second appointment calendar 30, accordingly.
At this point, myautogarage is ready to schedule appointments online for the dealer. To this end, scheduling computer 14 transmits open appointments in second appointment calendar 24 to customer computer 28 through dealer website server 16 upon receiving a schedule appointment request initiated by the customer. The appointment times are displayed on customer computer 28 through a user interface. The customer then selects one of the available appointments. Second appointment calender 24 stored in scheduling database 30 is updated to reflect the customer's selection. As a drawback to the myautogarage system, first appointment calendar 22 is not automatically updated to reflect the customer's appointment selection.
Instead, scheduling computer 14 periodically pushes scheduled appointment information to dealer management computer 12. A dealer representative then must manually accept or decline the scheduled appointment information and update first appointment calendar 22 stored in dealer management database 20 through data entry to reflect the pushed scheduled appointment information. In many cases, substantial time elapses between an online customer selecting an open appointment and manual confirmation and update of first appointment calendar 22. Disadvantageously, the customer can receive notification, via e-mail or telephone, from the dealer representative that the scheduled appointment is no longer available, after the substantial time lapse, which could be several days in certain circumstances.
During the elapsed time, customers can schedule the same appointment offline by calling or visiting the dealer. According to this process, dealer management computer 12 transmits open appointments in first appointment calendar 22 to dealer computer 18. The open appointments are displayed on dealer computer 18 through a user interface so that a dealer representative can review and communicate the times to the customer scheduling the appointment. The customer decides upon an available appointment based on information provided by the dealership representative. The dealer representative inputs the available appointment into the user interface to reflect that the appointment time is no longer available and dealer management database 12 is updated accordingly.
Since dealers do not want to pass up opportunities to schedule appointments offline or online, first and second appointment calendars 20 and 24 often share the same open appointments. Appointment sharing in combination with the elapsed time between online appointment selection and update of first appointment calender 22 cause inevitable double booking of appointments. This common problem with the myautogarage system can lead to low customer confidence in dealers utilizing the myautogarage system. The two appointment calendar setup does not allocate appointment times in an efficient manner due to the lack of real-time integration between the myautogarage system and first appointment calendar 22 stored in dealer management database 20.
What is needed is an online interactive method and system for advising customers on service needs and facilitating the scheduling of service appointments which increases the uniformity of the scheduling process. In addition, an online interactive method and system is needed that allows customers to schedule appointments and advises customers of service needs beyond normal operating hours of the dealership. Moreover, an online interactive method and system is needed to allow customers to check vehicle service status. What is also needed is an online method and system for providing recall and/or maintenance information from a original equipment (OE) database source. This information should include pricing and scheduling information for vehicle maintenance. Additionally, there is a need to provide an online interactive method and system for scheduling service appointments directly with the dealership without interrupting the dealership's normal shop loading process.